Valve apparatus for controlling hydraulic or pneumatic machines



April 29, 1941.

E. PICK VALVE APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING HYDRAULIC OR BNEUHATIC MACHINESs Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Sept. 30, 1938 )IIIIIIII/ffdll April 29, 1941.PCK 2,240,163

VALVE APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING HYDRAULIC OR PNEUMATIC MACHINES FiledSept. 30, 1938 5 Sheets-SheetZ ki kl. A L

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Patented Apr. 29, 1941 UNITED STAT-E 2,240,163 VALVE APPARATUS FORCONTROLLING HYDRAULIC R PNEUMATIC East Rockaway, N. Y., assignor to TheEric Pick,

Permutit Company, New

tion of Delaware mommzs York, N. Y., a corpora- Application September30,1938, Serial No. 232,654

1 Claim.

This invention or discovery relates to valve apparatus for controllinghydraulic or pneumatic machines; and it comprisesa master pilot controlvalve for such utilization including at least one valve housing havingfour separate chambers therein, means for connecting one of saidchambers to a source of pressure fluid and for venting another of saidchambers, means for connecting the remaining two chambers to thehydraulic machine, a pair of two-way, two-position p pets in the housingeach arranged in one position to connect one of'said last-named chamberswith the pressure fluid chamber and in the other position to connect thesame last-named chamber with the vented chamber, and means foralternately moving the two p ppets in opposite senses through the valveto one side of the hydraulic machine and fluid is exhausted from theother side of the machine to waste, and in the other position theseconnections are reversed; the chantbered valve housings advantageouslybeing arranged as units for construction of multiple pilot valveassemblages of any desired number of valves; all as more fullyhereinafter set forth and as claimed.

Zeolite water softeners, filters and certain other types of watertreating apparatus require a multiplicity of connections 'to be made fordirecting flows of various liquids through the apparatus for variousperiods andin proper sequence. For example, in a typical zeolite watersoftenerthere must be pipe and valve connections for directing a flow ofhard water downwardly through the zeolites during the softening stage,and also connections for successively directing backwash water upwardlythrough the zeolite, treating the zeolite with brine and rinsing out thebrine. Typical zeolite softeners require seven separate valves,

or the equivalent; and typical filters require five separate valves.Because of the complexity of the operations involved, in some types ofwater treating apparatus a single, multiport master valve is substitutedfor the plurality of individual valves so that the various connectionsare established simply by progressively turning the rotary valve tovarious angular positions. The valve can be electrically actuated andcontrolled. This arrangement is better suited for small and medium-sizedapparatus than for very large apparatus where the pipes may be severalinches in diameter. In very large water treaters there has recently comeinto use a system wherein a plurality of individual hydraulicallyactuated (piston or diaphragm) valves are used for the sevpressure fluidis applied pilot control valve apparatus for actuating a set eralconduits, and these power trolled and operated by a master rotary pilotvalve which can be of relatively small size. My prior Patents 2,076,321and. 2,076,322 disclose systems of this type. I

The primitive type of system with separate gate valves has the advantageof flexibility in that new operating steps, such as airwash steps, canbe added by simply installing appropriate additional pipes and valves.This advantage is to some extent lost in the centralized rotary valvetype or control, because a rotary multiport valve must be designed as aflxedunit, and the only way to add new steps under control or the mastervalve is to supplya new master valve.

According to the present invention I provide a of individual hydraulicvalves, which has all the advantages or rotary pilot valves but ischaracterized by an extreme degree of flexibility. That is, the valvestructure is such that addition of new operating steps to the systemmerely requires adding more units to thebasic valve assemblage. Thusaccording to the invention, there is provided an assemblage of poppetpilot valves in individual housings of such shape that a plurality ofhousings can be stacked up as desired. Each valve unit comprises a, pairof double poppets, arranged in a housing which is in effect sub-dividedinto four separate chambers, two beingin permanent connection with asource of pressure fluid and with waste respectively, and the other twobeing connected to the opposite ends of one of the piston type valves ofthe treating apparatus. The two poppets of each unit are arranged to bealternately'moved up and down in opposite directions or senses, and inbeing moved from one positionto the other, to connect the opposite endsof the valve cylinder respectively with pressure fluid and waste, andwith waste and pressure fluid.

The new valve device is an exceptionally re-' liable and flexiblecontrol apparatusadaptedfor use with water treating apparatus of anydesired degree of complexity, and also adapted to any other utilizationwhere a control valve having its special characteristics is foundadvantageous or desirable. v

In the accompanying drawings I have shown, more or lessdiagrammatically, an example of a specific embodiment of'apparatuswithin the purview of the invention. Referring to the drawings,

Figs. 1 and 2 are viewsin central vertical section, with some parts inelevation, of one valve unit, taken along line l -l of Fig. 3, showinghow valves are con-' the valve makes proper fluid connections in its twooperating positions Fig. 3 is a view in plan of the complete assemblage,five unit valves being shown in the figure;

Fig. 4 is a view in end elevation of one of the valve units complete;

Fig. 5 is a view in vertical section of. the valve housing alone of Fig.4 taken along line 8-5 of Fig. 4; the valves themselves and operatingmean being omitted from Fig. 5; and

Fig. 6 is a view of the rear closure in elevation, looking in thedirection of line 3-6 of Fig. 3.

Referring to the drawings, the general combination is shown in Fig. 3,as including a stack of valve units, each of which appears in elevationas in Fig. 4. Figs. 1 and 2 show to best advantage the interiorconstruction and mode of operation of the individual units. 45 shown,each unit comprises a unitary cast housing I0 having two flat faces IIand I2 adapted to register with adjacent housings (Fig. 5) and having ahollow partition I3 within the housing arranged to define four separatechambers denoted as I4, I5, I6 and I1. Chambers I4 and I5 extend clearthrough the housing as is apparent from Figs. 4 and 5, so that in thestack (Fig. 3) the chambers ll of all the units are in free and opencommunication and the chambers I5 are in free and open communication.One end of. the stack is closed by a solid plate I8 (Fig. 3) and theother end is closed by an end plate I9 (shown by itself in Fig. 6)having two orifices therein and 2|, registering respectively withchambers I4 and I5, and connected respectively with a. waste conduit anda conduit 28 in permanent communication with a source A liquid underpressureyadvamtageously the city mains. In Figs. 1, 2 and 4 the endplate I 9 with its orifices 20and 2| is not shown, but the positions ofthese orifices 20 and 2| are indicated in these figures in dotted lines,

forthe sake of clarity of presentation.

Chambers I6 and I1 in each valve housing do not communicate withadjacent valve housings, being blocked oil by wall portions 21. Thesetwo chambers communicate with the opposite ends of a piston valve orother type of hydraulic apparatus which is to be controlled by the pilotvalve. Figs. 1 and 2 show, by way of illustration of such controlledapparatus, a hydraulic valve, to a greatly reduced scale and in adiagrammatic manner. The hydraulic valve which can be of any suitabletype, includes a valve body 28, a gate 29 mounted on a piston rod 30, acylinder 3i and a piston 32 arranged to open and close the valve gate.The cylinder has two conduit connections 33 and 34, which are connected.as indicated diagrammatically in Figs. 1 and 2, with valve passages l6and I1. For this purpose passages I6 and I 1 are prolonged into socketmembers 35 and 36 threaded to receive coupling members 31 for tubing 33and 34. I

The housing contains two separate poppets, which can be of identicalconstruction as shown, each of which includes a body portion '40extending through partition I3, and two discs 4| and 42 of soft rubberor the like adapted to abut raised annular seat portions 43 and 44 onpartition I3. The body member is made long enough so that each poppetcan slide back and forth to .two positions, to engage the opposite sidesalternately as will be apparent from Figs. 1 and 2. Each poppet is urgedupwardly by a coil spring 45 abutting a. cap member 46 threaded to thelower end of the poppet body member. The coil spring is retained by ascrew cap I 48. The upper end of the body member has an exactly similarcap 43 which is engaged by a socket l1 retained to a n 43 extendingupward through a cap 49 beyond the housing ID, as shown. A flexiblemetal bellows 50 is, hermetically sealed to the cap 4! and socket 41 toprovide a permanent fluid tight connection. Unscrewing caps I and 43allows the entire poppet assemblies to be readily dismounted.

The puppets are actuated in unison in opposite senses by a lever I2pivotally attached at 53 to a fork I4 centrally located on the housing,as shown. Lever 52 has a platform 8! opposite the upper end of one ofthe rods 43, and a leafspring 56 for the other rod 43. Thus onreciprocation of the lever the Poppet valves are alternately moved upand down. A coil spring 51 is arranged to move one end of the lever downas shown. The opposite end of the lever is forked at 58 and carriesa-roller 53 which is engaged by a cam mounted on a camshaft SI by meansof a collar 62 and set screw 63. The camshaft is mounted in two bearingsand 9| as shown. A collar 92 prevents sliding of the shaft. Byappropriate shape of the cam and angular location of the cam on theshaft, the valves can be actuated over any desired fraction of a cycle.(In Fig. 3 part of the camshaft is broken away to give a clear plan viewof one of the levers 52.)

Referring to Figs. 1 and 2, it is apparent that in one position (Fig. 1)the unit serves to open the hydraulic valve 28 and when moved to theother position (Fig. 2) it closes the hydraulic valve.

The valve housings have openings 65 extending therethrough (Fig. 4) andthe stack is held together by four rods 63 extending clear through thestack and through plates I 8 and I9 and retained .by nuts 61. Gasketsare interposed between the several units as indicated at 68 (Fig. 3).

The assemblage shown in Fig. 3, having five valve units, is well adaptedfor use with filters. The rear closure I9 is shown by itself in Fig. 6.It has four holes I 06 for reception of rods 65, and the two apertures20 and 2| for connection to waste and pressure respectively. A slightlyraised flat platform I01 rear end of the stack of valve units.

. The valve units and end closures I 8 and I 9 have small bores I 08 forreception of dowel pins I09 to insure proper alinement of the severalunits The valves are actuated at proper times by the aid of a motor 10,under manual or automatic control, adapted to drive the camshaft 6|through a transmission including a worm 12 coupled to the motor shaft 13through a flexible coupling 14, and driving a worm wheel 15 which drivesa jack shaft 18 through a conventional one-way clutch 11. A worm onshaft 16 (not appearing in the figure) drives a worm wheel 18 attachedto the camshaft with the aid of a set screw 19, as shown. The reason forthe provision of the one way clutch is so that the valve unit may bereadily operated manually independently of the motor. Means for doingthis include a squared shaft 80 connected to jack shaft 16 with' bevelgears BI and adapted to take a crank, not shown. The motor is mounted ona base plate I00 which at its rear portion has three sets of holes IIII, I02 and I03, spaced apart by a distance equal to the thickness ofeach valve unit. The rear end of the base is attached to a platform I04,unitary with rear closure 19 (Fig. 6) by a pair of screws I05 throughthe appro- (Figs. 3 and 6) abuts the priate pair of holes; IM in thedrawings. With this arrangement, on taking out one of the valve units tomake a smaller stack, the base plate is attached to platform I throughholes I02, and if two units are taken away, holes I03 are used.

The outer end of the camshaft communicates with conventionalposition-indicating and motor-switching means indicated at 82 which perse forms no part of the invention.

While the pilot valve has been described with particular reference topiston-type gate valves, it is of course not restricted in itsapplication to this particular utility, but is well adapted for use inany system involving hydraulically or pneumatically actuated mechanismand requiring a pilot control valve. In the specification and claim. theterm hydraulic is used for brevity to I include systems wherein a gas aswell as a liquid is the motive fluid, the invention being, of course,equally well adapted to such utilizations. The apparatus is easy to makeliquidand gas-tight.

,The apparatus is embodied in any suitable material such as isordinarily used in apparatus handling liquids; for instance, bronze orstainless steel in the case of water as the motive liquid,

or plain steel ii the motive fluid is oil or air. If oil is employed asthe motive liquid, valve discs 4| and 42 are best made 01' leather orother oil resistant resilient material.

. ing housings, 1s

The device is essentially simple to construct, involving only simplemechanical operations, and changing the number 01' units in the stack isa very simple matter. It mainly requires substituting a newset of rods66 and a new camshaft SI of a suitable length.

What I claim is:

In a valve mechanism a plurality of valve units juxtaposed to form astack, each unit comprising a housing. partition means in each housingdelining two separate chambers therein open at opposite ends of thehousing and communicating directly with corresponding chambers ofadjoinclosures for covering the exposed ends of the outermost housingsin the stack, screw means for holding said housings and ohsures togetherin fluid tight relationship, means in said closures for connecting oneof said sets of communicating chambers with a source of pressure fluidand the other of said sets with a point 0! in each of said housings,ports leading from each of the first named chambers into each of saidother fluid chambers, valve members for said ports, stems iorsaid valvemembers, a shaft coextensive with the stack, cams on the shaft adaptedto move the stems upon rotation of the shaft. and means for rotating theshaft.

ERIC PICK.

disposal, two other fluid chambers

